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| 9/28/14
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Deep Rising (Jerry Goldsmith)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
if you never tire of stereotypical Jerry Goldsmith action and horror scores no matter how
derivative and predictable they may be.
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Avoid it... |
if you lament the lack of a distinct personality in many of the late-era Goldsmith autopilot
scores, especially when he explicably became intertwined in trashy flicks.
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Buy it... |
if you seek the kind of small-scale, mystical, eerie, and withdrawn score in Danny Elfman's
career that equals The Spitfire Grill for James Horner at about the same time.
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Avoid it... |
if the occasional harmonic beauty that Elfman can create with acoustic guitars and
pennywhistle can't substantiate less than half an hour of otherwise directionless pondering.
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| 9/14/14
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Dennis the Menace (Jerry Goldsmith)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
only if you are a dedicated Jerry Goldsmith collector and do not quickly lose patience with
the composer's nonstop slapstick comedy mode for a full orchestral ensemble.
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Avoid it... |
if you found nothing special about the superior and very similar Looney Tunes: Back in Action
score from Goldsmith or if you expect to hear his trademark electronics make more than a token
contribution.
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| 9/1/14
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Night Crossing (Jerry Goldsmith)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
if you seek a redemptive combination of Jerry Goldsmith's swirling fantasy atmosphere, brutal
military themes, and complicated layers of orchestral lines in a very engaging and dynamic
package.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect an abundance of any of the three major themes from Night Crossing, two of which
very strong in their addressing of the hopes and fears of those making the daring escape on
screen.
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Buy it... |
if you seek a wide range of emotions from John Williams in one score, a work straining in its
turbulent, sometimes sparse suspense material but redemptive in its famous theme and wondrous
fantasy half.
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Avoid it... |
if you require a strong sense of continuity and flow in your soundtracks, because the film's
indecision about balancing the horrors of war and a boy's imagination translate directly into
a disjointed listening experience.
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Buy it... |
if you seek Jerry Goldsmith's last robust action score, along with an unusually prominent
contribution of original and source songs heard in the film.
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Avoid it... |
if you expect more than fifteen minutes of truly unique, choral and solo vocal music from
Goldsmith in a score otherwise defined by its occasional bursts of the composer's trademark
action and predictable suspense material.
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| 8/9/14
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The Peacemaker (Hans Zimmer)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
on any of its album presentations if you appreciate the extremely masculine and often brutal
synthetic and organic blend that defines Hans Zimmer's action sound of the era.
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Avoid it... |
on the commercial album if you seek a coherent presentation of the score, for the definitive
2014 set paints a far more balanced and impressive picture of Zimmer's composition by offering
both the film's original cues and the composer's preferred arranged suites.
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| 5/11/14
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Psycho II (Jerry Goldsmith)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
only if you trust Jerry Goldsmith to follow Bernard Herrmann with a respectfully different,
conservative, atmospheric score that takes no chances with the concept.
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Avoid it... |
if you find Goldsmith's carefully subdued, textural work for dissonant synthesizer effects and
restrained orchestra to be underwhelming, especially given its redundancy on both of this
score's album presentations.
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| 5/4/14
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Flesh + Blood (Basil Poledouris)
- Updated Review, With Additional Album |
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Buy it... |
on the similar 2010 or 2014 albums if you seek a bold, glorious, tonal, and rhythmically
constructed companion score to Basil Poledouris' Conan the Barbarian in its most obviously
superior sound quality.
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Avoid it... |
if you are not an audiophile and the score's raw demeanor has never really enticed you going
all the way back to Varese Sarabande's Club CD in 1992, in which case subsequent presentations
of additional material will likely not impress you.
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